''Foofur'' is an American animated

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

from '' Kissyfur'' creator Phil Mendez that was produced by

Hanna-Barbera Productions Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

with SEPP International S.A. Airing on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

from 1986 to 1987, the show was about the everyday misadventures of the skinny blue protagonist dog in Willowby. A comic book series based on the cartoon was produced by and released from

Star Comics Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and featured titles that were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys. The last comic published under the imprint ...

(an imprint of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

Plot

In the town of Willowby, a tall skinny blue

bloodhound The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar, rabbits, and since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is ...

named Foofur has taken refuge in a mansion, in 32 Maple Street, which is also his birthplace. In Foofur's group is his niece Rocki, Fencer the Cat, a

bulldog The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is a stocky, muscular dog of medium size, with a large head, thick folds of skin around the face and shoulders and a rel ...

named Louis with his girlfriend, an Old English Sheepdog named Annabell, and a cocker spaniel named Hazel with her husband, a

miniature schnauzer The Miniature Schnauzer is a dog breed, breed of small dog of the Schnauzer type that originated in Germany in the mid-to-late 19th century. Miniature Schnauzers may have been developed from the smallest specimens of the Standard Schnauzer, or c ...

named Fritz-Carlos. Foofur and his friends, however, have an enemy in a woman named Mrs. Amelia Escrow and her pet Chihuahua named Pepe, who tries to expose Foofur's illegal roommates, but always to no avail. Mrs. Escrow has tried many times to sell the estate, but unbeknownst to her, Foofur and his friends keep the house from being bought, as they also protect their home from rodents like the Rat Brothers who tend to mess with Fencer, other cats like Vinnie and his Cat Pack, and greedy humans. While trying to stop Mrs. Escrow, Foofur tries to avoid having his friends captured by the Bowser Busters' dog catchers Mel and Harvey. In addition, an

Afghan Hound The Afghan Hound is a hound distinguished by its thick, fine, silky coat, and a tail with a ring curl at the end. The breed originates in the cold mountains of Afghanistan. Its local name is () or (). Other names for this breed are Tāzī, Balkh ...

named Burt also antagonizes Foofur and competes with him to win the affection of a basset hound named Dolly.

Characters

Main characters

* Foofur (voiced by

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. He began his career in the 1960s, and held around 850 film, television, and video game credits as of 2020, making him one of the most prolific v ...

) is a blue

who has taken refuge in a mansion, at 32 Maple Street, which is also his birthplace. * Rocki (voiced by Christina Lange) is an indigo bloodhound puppy and Foofur's niece. * Louis (voiced by

Dick Gautier Richard Gautier ( Go- tee- AY) (October 30, 1931 – January 13, 2017) was an American actor. He was known for his television roles as Hymie the Robot in the television series ''Get Smart'', and Robin Hood in the TV comedy series '' When Things ...

) is a street-smart

. * Annabell (voiced by Susan Tolsky) is a sensitive Old English Sheepdog and Louis' girlfriend. * Hazel (voiced by Pat Carroll) is a cocker spaniel and Fritz-Carlos' wife. * Fritz-Carlos (voiced by Jonathan Schmock) is a

and Hazel's husband. * Fencer (voiced by Eugene Williams) is a cat with a penchant for the martial arts. * Mrs. Amelia Escrow (voiced by

Susan Silo Susan Silo (born July 27, 1942) is an American actress who is known for her work in voice-over roles. Early life Susan Silo was born in New York City. Both her parents were actors Jon Silo and Ruth Silo. Career Her acting career started in ...

) is a woman who has tried many times to sell the mansion. Unbeknownst to her, Foofur and his friends keep the house from being bought. * Pepe (voiced by

Don Messick Donald Earle Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was an American voice actor, known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. His best-remembered voice roles include Scooby-Doo; Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in ''The Flintsto ...

) is Mrs. Amelia Escrow's chihuahua who tries to expose Foofur and his roommates, to no avail. * Rat Brothers are three rats who antagonize Fencer. ** Sammy (voiced by Chick Vennera) is a thin black rat who is the leader of the Rat Brothers. ** Baby (voiced by

Peter Cullen Peter Claver Cullen (born July 28, 1941) is a Canadian voice actor. He voiced Optimus Prime in the original 1980s ''The Transformers (TV series), Transformers'' animated series, later returning to the role in ''Transformers'' media in 2007, sta ...

) is a fat violet rat. ** Chucky (voiced by Allan Melvin in most episodes, and by Frank Welker in a few episodes) is a fat pink rat who is the strongest of the Rat Brothers. * Mel and Harvey (voiced by David Doyle and Michael Bell) are the Bowser Busters' dog catchers. * Vinnie (voiced by Peter Cullen) is the leader of a cat gang and one of the enemies of Foofur and his friends. * Burt (voiced by William Callaway) is an arrogant

who tries to win Dolly's love. * Dolly (voiced by Susan Blu) is a

basset hound The Basset Hound is a short-legged breed of scent hound. The Basset Hound was developed in Great Britain from several now-extinct strains of France, French basset breeds. It was bred primarily for hunting rabbit and hare on foot, moving slowly en ...

who is the object of Foofur and Burt's affections.

Other characters

* Norris is a

beagle The Beagle is a small breed of scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting rabbit or hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking inst ...

puppy who is also a mascot for a dog food company. * Bertie and Bernie are two beagles belonging to a judge. * Harry is an easily-scared dog. * Pam is a

Pekingese The Pekingese (also spelled Pekinese) is a dog breed, breed of toy dog, originating in China. The breed was favored by royalty of the Chinese sovereign, Chinese Imperial court as a companion dog, and its name refers to the city of Beijing (Peki ...

. * Celia is a

poodle The Poodle, called the in German () and the in French, is a breed of water dog. The breed is divided into four varieties based on size, the Standard Poodle, Medium Poodle, Miniature Poodle and Toy Poodle, although the Medium Poodle is no ...

. * Brenda is a terrier. * Brigette is a poodle who belongs to Mrs. Escrow's cousin Roberto. * Lucy is a poodle who lives in a pawn shop. * Muffy is a poodle. * Jojo is a

Scottish Terrier The Scottish Terrier (; also known as the Aberdeen Terrier), popularly called the Scottie, is a dog breed, breed of dog. Initially one of the highland breeds of terrier that were grouped under the name of ''Skye Terrier'', it is one of five br ...

. * Sarge is a Doberman Pinscher. * Dobkins is a St. Bernard. * Trendy is a

Siberian Husky The Siberian Husky is a dog breed, breed of medium-sized Working dog, working sled dog. The breed belongs to the Spitz genetic family. It is recognizable by its thickly furred Coat (dog), double coat, erect triangular ears, and distinctive mark ...

. * Blaze is a

German Shepherd The German Shepherd, also known in Britain as an Alsatian, is a German Dog breed, breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various Old German herding dogs, traditional German herding dog ...

. * Lorenzo is a dalmatian. * Otto is a

Labrador Retriever The Labrador Retriever or simply Labrador or Lab is a British list of dog breeds, breed of water dog retriever gun dog. It was developed in the United Kingdom from St. John's water dogs imported from the Newfoundland Colony, colony of Newfoun ...

. * Rover Cleveland is an elderly dog. * Tugboat is Foofur's brother and Rocki's father. * Phyllis is Foofur's sister. * Obscura is a cat belonging to a fortune teller. * Cleo is a violet cat belonging to an archaeologist. * Willy is a fox kit, who tries to avoid the fox hunters. * Duke is a singing mouse. * Killer (voiced by Jerry Houser) is a harmless St. Bernard. * Brisbane is a dog. * Big Boombah is a rat and the leader of the Shipyard Rats who is an opportunist. * Pops is a rat who lives in the Willowby Train Station. * Buttercup is Mrs. Escrow's pet canary. * Mr. Mutton is a smuggler from London. * Kirk is Hazel's old boyfriend, a German Shepherd trained for fire rescues who saves Fritz-Carlos and Rocki's playmate Augie when they're trapped in a burning house. * Augie is another local dog, Rocki's playmate. * Ivan is a Russian dog Foofur and Louis interact with in New York City. * Lulubelle is a female dog initially intended to smuggle jewels, who was replaced by Annabelle. * Oliver is an English puppy whom Annabelle saves after she ends up in London.

Voice cast

– Foofur, Chucky (in some episodes) * Michael Bell – Harvey * Susan Blu – Dolly * William Callaway – Burt * Pat Carroll – Hazel *

– Baby, Vinnie * David Doyle – Mel *

– Louis * Christina Lange – Rocki * Allan Melvin – Chucky *

– Pepe * Jonathan Schmock – Fritz Carlos *

– Mrs. Escrow * Susan Tolsky – Annabell * Chick Vennera – Sam * Eugene Williams – Fencer

Additional voices

David Ackroyd David Ackroyd (born May 30, 1940) is an American actor, who first came to prominence in soap operas such as ''The Secret Storm'' and ''Another World (TV series), Another World''. Early life On May 30, 1940, Ackroyd was born in East Orange, N ...

(Season 2) * Jered Barclay (Season 1) *

Roscoe Lee Browne Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and theatre director, director. He resisted playing Stereotypes of African Americans, stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York Ci ...

(Season 2) * Arthur Burghardt (Season 1) * Hamilton Camp * Victoria Carroll (Season 1) * Cheryl Chase (Season 2) * Danny Cooksey (Season 1) - Bogey (in "The Last Resort") *

Jim Cummings James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor. Beginning his career in the 1980s, he has appeared in over 400 titles. Cummings has frequently worked with the Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., serving as the offic ...

(Season 2) * Linda Dangcil (Season 1) * Jennifer Darling * Leo DeLyon (Season 2) *

Walker Edmiston Walker Robert Edmiston (February 6, 1926 – February 15, 2007) was an American actor and puppeteer. Early years Walker Edmiston was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 6, 1926, to William Sherman Edmiston (1894–1976) and Anna Edmiston ( ...

(Season 2) *

Casey Ellison Casey Ellison (born March 2, 1976, in the United States) is a former American actor who is famous for his role as Allen Anderson on the NBC sitcom ''Punky Brewster''. In 1986, he left the show and never appeared in the new 2021 revival. Career ...

(Season 1) * John Erwin (Season 1) *

Miriam Flynn Miriam Flynn is an American Voice acting, voice and character actor, character actress. She is best known as Cousin Catherine in the ''National Lampoon's Vacation (film series), National Lampoon's Vacation'' films and Grandma Longneck in ''The ...

June Foray June Foray (born June Lucille Forer; September 18, 1917 – July 26, 2017) was an American Voice acting, voice actress and radio personality, best known as the voice of such animation, animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha F ...

(Season 1) * George Furth (Season 2) * Melanie Gaffin (Season 1) *

Henry Gibson James Bateman (September 21, 1935 – September 14, 2009), known professionally as Henry Gibson, was an American actor, comedian and poet. He played roles in the television sketch-comedy series ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' from 1968 to 1971, w ...

(Season 2) * Scott Grimes (Season 2) * Edan Gross (Season 2) *

Jonathan Harris Jonathan Daniel Harris ( Charasuchin; November 6, 1914 – November 3, 2002) was an American character actor whose career included more than 500 television and film appearances, as well as Voice-over, voiceovers. Two of his best-known roles we ...

– Lance Lyons *

Phil Hartman Philip Edward Hartman (; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American comedian, actor, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, and his family moved to the United States when he w ...

(Season 2) * Jerry Houser (Season 2) – Killer the St. Bernard (in "Pepe's Pet Peeve") * Vincent Howard (Season 2) *

Arte Johnson Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (January 20, 1929 – July 3, 2019) was an American actor and comedian who was best known for his work as a regular on television's ''Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In''. Biography Early life Johnson was born January 20, 19 ...

(Season 1) *

Aron Kincaid Aron Kincaid (born Norman Neale Williams II; June 15, 1940 – January 6, 2011) was an American actor, known for voicing Killer Croc on '' Batman: The Animated Series'' and Sky Lynx on '' The Transformers''. He also voiced characters for ' ...

(Season 2) * Keland Love (Season 1) * Allan Lurie (Season 2) * Jim MacGeorge (Season 2) *

Robert Mandan Robert Mandan (February 2, 1932 – April 29, 2018) was an American actor, best known for his roles as Sam Reynolds on '' Search for Tomorrow'' (1965–1970), Chester Tate, the philandering businessman husband of Jessica Tate ( Katherine Hel ...

(Season 2) * Kenneth Mars (Season 1) * Terrence McGovern (Season 2) * Brian Stokes Mitchell (Season 2) * Pedro Montero (Season 1) *

Lynne Moody Emmalyn Paulette Moody (born February 17, 1945), known professionally as Lynne Moody, is an American film and television actress. Beginning her career in the early 1970s, Moody is best known her roles as Tracy Curtis–Taylor in the ABC televisi ...

* Pat Musick (Season 2) * Frank Nelson (Season 1) – Dr. Pavlov (in "A Little Off the Top") *

Louis Nye Louis Nye (May 1, 1913 – October 9, 2005) was an American comedic actor. He was an entertainer to the troops during World War II and is best known for his work on multiple television, film and radio programs. Radio and television Nye met Car ...

(Season 2) * Nicholas Omana (Season 1) *

Rob Paulsen Robert Frederick Paulsen III (born March 11, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director, known for his roles in numerous animated television series and films. He received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Pro ...

(Season 2) * Josh Rodine (Season 1) *

Percy Rodrigues Percy Rodriguez (born Percy Rodrigues; June 13, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was a Canadian actor who appeared in many television shows and films from the 1950s to the 1980s. He was of Afro-Portuguese heritage and was born in the Saint-Henri neigh ...

(Season 2) *

Kath Soucie Kath Soucie (, ). is an American voice actress, known for voicing Phil, Lil and their mother Betty DeVille in '' Rugrats'', Lola Bunny in the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise, Fifi La Fume and Li'l Sneezer in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Maddie Fent ...

(Season 2, uncredited) * Alexandra Stoddart (Season 2) * Larry Storch (Season 2) * Mark L. Taylor (Season 1) * Sal Viscuso (Season 2) * B.J. Ward (Season 2) * Lennie Weinrib (Season 2)

Episode list

Season 1 (1986)

Season 2 (1987–88)

Home media

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of episodes of the series were released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

by Celebrity Home Entertainment's Just for Kids label.

Legal activity

''Foofur'' played a role in the case ''

Nationwide Insurance Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and affiliated companies, commonly shortened to Nationwide, is a group of large U.S. insurance and financial services companies based in Columbus, Ohio. The company also operates regional headquarters in Scott ...

v. Board of Trustees of the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

'', 116 F.3d 1154 (7th Cir. 1997). The case dealt with an insurer's duty to defend an insured party in light of the insured's intentional acts of property damage. The insured, a drunken college student, spelled out "FOO"—meaning "foo", a word derived from Foofur—on the

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

football field of Memorial Stadium with lighter fluid burning the letters into the turf. He caused $600,000 damage to the AstroTurf. The court held that such an act was not within the

insurance policy In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract (generally a standard form contract) between the insurer and the policyholder, which determines the claim (legal), claims which the insurer is law, legally required to pay. In exchange for an initial ...

's liability coverage.

Reception

In 2014, listing it among twelve 1980s animated series that supposedly did not deserve remembrance, ''

io9 ''io9'' is a sub-blog of the technology blog ''Gizmodo'' that focuses on science fiction and fantasy pop culture, with former focuses on science, technology and futurism. It was created as a standalone blog in 2008 by editor Annalee Newitz under ...

'' criticized the series, perceiving its premise to be contrived and remarking that "someone had the gall to think this was 'cool'".

References

External links

* * at the Cartoon Scrapbook *
''Foofur''
at the Big Cartoon Database *

at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on July 30, 2016. {{Children's programming on NBC in the 1980s 1980s American animated comedy television series 1980s American children's comedy television series 1986 American animated television series debuts 1987 American television series endings American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated comedy television series Television shows adapted into comics Star Comics titles American English-language television shows Animated television series about dogs Animated television series about cats Animated television series about mice and rats Children's television series about talking animals Works about friendship Animated television series set in the United States Television series set in the 1980s Television series by Hanna-Barbera NBC animated television series Television shows set in country houses